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Campbell: A big game in Big D

Quarterback Jason Campbell had one of the best games in his career last season while leading the Redskins to a 26-24 victory over the Dallas Cowboys at Texas Stadium. Campbell completed 20 of 31 passes for 231 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions. He had a 108.4 passer rating while leading the Redskins to only their second victory in the last 13 games in Texas.

The Redskins on Sunday make their first appearance and the new Cowboys Stadium, and Campbell is eager to face the NFC East leaders again.

"It's a big game," Campbell said. "First and foremost, it's an NFC game. We're on the road, we're already behind in the conference. For us, each game is a playoff game for us, from this point on to the rest of the season. So every game is magnitude at the highest level you can get."

Although the Cowboys (6-3) are coming off a loss to the Green Bay Packers, they have performed much better this season than the Redskins (3-6), who are last in the division. "You look at the early part of the season, of course they've had a better year than we've had so far," Campbell said. "They've had a lot of great games this year.

"They're a competitive team, a good football team, they're well-coached. We got off to a rough start. We're in a little different situation compared to all the injuries and things we've gone through offensively. But we're trying to bounce back and find our way."

Zorn's updates

Via Rick Maese's tweets, Coach Jim Zorn said that Carlos Rogers had a good practice and that Rogers, Fred Smoot, Justin Tryon and Lendy Holmes all took reps with the first team. ... Clinton Portis attended team meeting this morning but missed a position meeting later. Zorn said he would "be very cautious" even if Portis gets medical clearance to play. ... Albert Haynesworth "will work as hard as he can" to play, Zorn said. He'll probably be a weekend decision.

That was really sweet of you, chasgiffen. Thanks for expressing these sentiments. You have enriched all of our lives.

Yep, I ordered a pumpkin milkshake and it kicked ass. I shared it with my two little boys, and they loved it. I daresay that it was so delicious that you would have enjoyed it, too, unless you're such a mirthless piece of crap that you are incapable of "enjoying" things. By which I mean, you're welcome to lick to sole of the loafers in which I am proud to be light.

I like hearing Lendy Holmes took reps with the first team. He was nasty at OU and looked great in the preseason, considering our safety play has been as strong to very strong as Ben Stiller's portfolio in Meet the Parents we need a shake up there badly.

heck, reddmv likes to get his nails done, and dress up like a chick, now that makes him a cross dressing bama, but does that make him light in the loaf....know what...nevermind, answered my own question...

Steelers fan says he was poisoned, blinded by Bears fans
Posted by Gregg Rosenthal on November 18, 2009 2:36 PM ET
Steelers fan Zack Heddinger says he was blinded at a Chicago bar by Bears fans after some trash talking gone awry.

Heddinger was in the Windy City for the Steelers 17-14 loss to Chicago in Week Two.

"Basically, I guess, my buddies had gotten into an altercation and they offered a drink as a peacemaker from what I understand," Heddinger said.

That's where things get weird.

According to ABC4 in Pittsburgh, Heddinger passed out and his heart stopped four times after he was rushed to a local hospital. Initially, doctors just thought he was drunk. But they quickly suspected something else was up.

Police are now investigating the incident, and the local bar, Kitty O'Shea's, is fully cooperating. Doctors now believe his drink could have been spiked with toxic grain alcohol.

Heddinger says he can't remember what happened that day, but hasn't been able to see since. He's taking oxygen treatments to recover his part of his eyesight, but doctors aren't very hopeful.

"I don't think they tried to kill me. I think they tried to hurt me, but the killing came pretty close," said Heddinger.

heck, reddmv likes to get his nails done, and dress up like a chick, now that makes him a cross dressing bama, but does that make him light in the loaf....know what...nevermind, answered my own question...

Posted by: BeantownGreg1 | November 18, 2009 3:22 PM | Report abuse

maybe not, but he's seen one up close.....boondocks saints 2 for those not catching the reference

If you make a joke and no one laughs, it's not a joke. Don't blame your audience because they don't think you're funny. Your material was bad.

The right thing to say is "Oops. I was trying to be funny but I guess I wasn't. Sorry." I think I said that once or twice and it worked out better than "Go stuff yourselves because I'm funny and you don't get it."

Campbell threw 17 complete passes and 9 incompletions vs Denver. Were some of his passes off target? Yes. But is completing 2/3 of your passes a good result? Yes.

Posted by: zcezcest1 | November 18, 2009 3:11 PM
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Unless three of those eight incomplete passes happen to be to the other team because the QB is so inaccurate (see Tampa Bay game for hole in rationalization). The coaches are trying to accomodate Campbell's inaccuracy in a lot of ways: make the passes shorter where JC is more accurate and has time to step into the pass, make the long pass when you have a receiver in space, help the QB out with motion to see if it's zone or man coverage, help the QB out with play action to get separation, etc. This doesn't make Campbell a better QB. It just makes Sherm Lewis smarter than Jim Zorn.

If Campbell is forced into a situation where he has to hit the long pass, he is going to display the same inaccuracy that he did on just about every deep pass he threw this season. This is a pity because Dallas is going to crowd the line of scrimmage, especially after Ladell Betts and Rock Cartwright tagged the Bronco's for over 150 yards rushing last week. This could open up a lot of deep stuff.

Maybe this will be Marko's big week. Throwing deep to someone with a larger wing span might help accomodate some of Campbell's inaccuracy. This might actually be the philosophy of Zorn throwing deep to Kelly earlier this season, but Kelly does not have the wheels.

heck, reddmv likes to get his nails done, and dress up like a chick, now that makes him a cross dressing bama, but does that make him light in the loaf....know what...nevermind, answered my own question...

You really just need to come out and say you don't like JC. To sit there and pick apart and look for negative things to say when we win and he completed over half his passes. You really just need to let it go man.

IMO, Levi Jones is now the best lineman on our roster. I think the only knock on him is past injuries, and I think the only reason the Bengals let him go was contract size with missing games, just the same as the Skins letting Shawn Springs go. If he stays healty, is should be a very nice pickup. Better than the Deangelo mid season pickup last year, but we’ll see.

And there is some serious over-reacting to the light in his loafers comment……anyone in his right mind can see he was trying to be funny. I guess it would have been okay if he had followed it up with “not that there’s anything wrong with that”….seen that one up here plenty, and nobody ever got their panties in a bunch like today……

The coaches are trying to accomodate Campbell's inaccuracy in a lot of ways: make the passes shorter where JC is more accurate and has time to step into the pass, make the long pass when you have a receiver in space, help the QB out with motion to see if it's zone or man coverage, help the QB out with play action to get separation, etc. This doesn't make Campbell a better QB. It just makes Sherm Lewis smarter than Jim Zorn.

Posted by: RedSkinHead

What, a coach is doing things to help his player perform better. SAY IT ISN'T SO!!!!!

You really just need to come out and say you don't like JC. To sit there and pick apart and look for negative things to say when we win and he completed over half his passes. You really just need to let it go man.

Posted by: jm220

He can join Vic if he does. All QBs miss a few those and yes JC missed a few big ones. To complete 2/3rds of your passes is still pretty good.

This isn't exactly a JC specific problem either. Look at the long ball receivers in this league. Andre Johnson, Marques Colston, Sidney Rice, Miles Austin, Randy Moss, Chad Johnson, Larry Fitzgerald etc. are all over 6 foot. It's hard to hit the little guys deep. Steve Smith is looking like the maytag man and Lance Moore's fantasy numbers are more of a nightmare. It isn't exactly rocket surgery. You need to go deep with more than just 1 recever and you need to do it more than once a game. The taller guys are much easier to hit.

You really just need to come out and say you don't like JC. To sit there and pick apart and look for negative things to say when we win and he completed over half his passes. You really just need to let it go man.

Posted by: jm220 | November 18, 2009 3:39 PM
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One game does not a pro-bowl QB make, quoth RedSkinHead.

As for not liking him, I don't know the guy. I don't think he is a great quarterback but that has nothing to do with who he is as a person. He has some flaws, that I think, can be minimized but will occasionally be exposed.

I remember watching Aaron Brooks play a few years ago thinking this guy was the greatest thing since sliced bread, but then teams learned how to play him, learned he couldn't handle man coverage very well because of his accuracy, and then he faded away. Aaron Brooks = Jason Campbell

IMO, Levi Jones is now the best lineman on our roster. I think the only knock on him is past injuries, and I think the only reason the Bengals let him go was contract size with missing games, just the same as the Skins letting Shawn Springs go. If he stays healty, is should be a very nice pickup. Better than the Deangelo mid season pickup last year, but we’ll see.

Posted by: dlhaze1

I think you're pretty much right on this. Jones was highly paid, injured too often and from what I recall, too inconsistent. Not sure if there was an attitude issue with him or not. Talent-wise, he's up there.

So, there are some 'ifs' that come with Jones.

What made no sense to me was that the front office didn't talk seriously to this guy until late October after Samuels went down. The guy can play and its not like we were looking very good at RT.

I'm not really interested in shanny coming here...if the Zorn/Lewis combo can get this thing right, then go with what you know, dance with who you brung...

Posted by: BeantownGreg1 | November 18, 2009 3:44 PM

You mean into next season? I don't see Zorn staying regardless. Now if all the big names are gone do they stay in house with Lewis, Danny Smith or Jerry Gray? If the Lewis/Zorn combo works for this season I wouldn't be shocked to see Zorn go and Lewis become the HC.

Otherwise they clean house - Leslie Frazier was spoken highly of last go round, as was the former D-coordinator at Indy, Maybe Billick?

I remember watching Aaron Brooks play a few years ago thinking this guy was the greatest thing since sliced bread, but then teams learned how to play him, learned he couldn't handle man coverage very well because of his accuracy, and then he faded away. Aaron Brooks = Jason Campbell

Posted by: RedSkinHead

You keep referring to his accuracy. I didn't know having a completion % in the mid 60s was considered inaccurate. Yes he misses a few but so does every other QB.

IF JC has a high completion % it's because he rarely throws long.. What's counts is scoring and this was the first time the team scored more than 17 points and the main reason was the punter threw a TD pass.. Put it this way Josh Freeman a rookie playing fot the Bucs.. a worse team than the Redskins... threw 3 TD passes in his 2ND GAME!!! When was the last time Campbell did anything like that??? I would have replaced Campbell already with Collins (Jurgensen agrees and that's good enough for me). Now it looks like Portis should have been replaced by Betts.. Zorn needed to be more flexable with his players.. because he's not is the reason he and Campbell and probably Portis will be gone next season..

IF JC has a high completion % it's because he rarely throws long.. What's counts is scoring and this was the first time the team scored more than 17 points and the main reason was the punter threw a TD pass.. Put it this way Josh Freeman a rookie playing fot the Bucs.. a worse team than the Redskins... threw 3 TD passes in his 2ND GAME!!! When was the last time Campbell did anything like that??? I would have replaced Campbell already with Collins (Jurgensen agrees and that's good enough for me). Now it looks like Portis should have been replaced by Betts.. Zorn needed to be more flexable with his players.. because he's not is the reason he and Campbell and probably Portis will be gone next season..

Posted by: sovine08

Dude, you have got to be kidding me. JC doesn't call the plays. Its ironic that the offense picked up when the play calling was taken away from Zorn. As Merrill Hodge stated a few weeks ago, Zorn calls play that are for zone coverage when teams are in man and vice versa.

No one is saying that JC is Drew Brees or Manning but he's the best QB we've had in DC in a decade. The way you win is with your O-line and we simply don't have one that's built for any QB right now. Yes they have played the last 6 quarters well but it took 100 year old Joe Bugel to fire them up.

Front office staff to be hired by Polian. Coaching staff to be hired by Grimm. Let these two work together with Polian making off field decisions and Grimm on field decisions. $nyder makes appearance's with fans to mend burnt bridges. Presto!

No one is saying that JC is Drew Brees or Manning but he's the best QB we've had in DC in a decade.
Posted by: dcwun
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Have we been that bad for that long at QB?? Look all I know Brad Johnson was with the team in 2000 and in 1999, Brad had a 90.0 passer rating with 4,005 yards, 24 TDs and 13 INTs. His 316 completions set a Washington team record and his 4,005 passing yards ranks second all-time in Redskins history. He led the Washington Redskins to the playoffs and defeated the Detroit Lions in the first-round before falling to Tampa Bay by a single point the following week. Of course Snyder got rid of him.. staying he couldn't see winning a Super Bowl with Johnson (Johnson won one 2 years later with TB)But more recently say what you will about Brunell and Collins they lead the Skins into the playoffs behind the same line as JC plays behind.. IF JC is better how come he can't get the Skins in the playoffs???